Dogged by election-year doubts over the invasion of Iraq, US President George W. Bush insisted Monday that the war was justified despite the failure to find weapons of mass destruction there.
"Although we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, we were right to go into Iraq," he said after touring a facility that houses nuclear materials recently handed over by Libya.
"We removed a declared enemy of America, who had the capability of producing weapons of mass murder and could have passed that capability to terrorists bent on acquiring them," said Bush.
"In the world after September the 11th, that was a risk we could not afford to take," he said. "America must remember the lessons of September the 11th. We must confront serious dangers before they fully materialise."
Bush's central public rationale for war centred on Iraq's alleged arsenals of weapons of mass destruction, none of which have been found, and supposed ties to al Qaeda, which have been dismissed by the official investigation into the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by Osama bin Laden's network.
The US Senate Intelligence Committee reported last week that the US intelligence community mischaracterized the threat posed by Iraq.
But the panel, which was controlled by members of Bush's Republican party, put off looking into the administration's role in shaping and using the information until after the November 2 election.
"The Senate Intelligence Committee has identified some shortcomings in our intelligence capabilities. The committee's report will help us in the work of reform," said Bush.
The central theme of Bush's speech was that "Americans are safer" because of the policies he has pursued since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but he warned that deadly dangers still threaten the United States.
"The terrorists are ruthless and resourceful, and we know they're preparing to attack us again," he said.
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